Sitting at Mass Sunday, my Pastor, Fr. Phil O'Kennedy, preached about this Easter Season, and the fact that is is coming to a close. The message revolved around the season's three buzz words... Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost. While this is not a repeat of his Homily, I do thank him for the inspiration, most every week. His message and the style he presents always offers me a spring board into how I express my faith. I believe that this is how church is supposed to work. Thanks Father!
Resurrection: This is most definitely the GOOD NEWS of the Easter season and the season of Spring. Each year we get to witness everlasting life, or as a fav' band of mine sings, "The season's cycle moving round and round, pushing life up from a cold dead ground... It's growing green! (Season Cycle - XTC's Skylarking) The miracle of The Resurrection plays out the real possibility that there has got to be "More Than This" (an awesome song by Peter Gabriel off the "Up" collection.). So, preparing one's self to live forever is very much a part of life!
Ascension: An equally important part of life is knowing that we must progress! In moving from "point A to point B", we have to be about improving our existence. In my Faith, I am called by God, through the reality of His Son Jesus Christ, to know, love and serve the Lord AND one another! The improvements in my life gets me ready to care for the lives of others! In a real sense, I am ascending to a high form of action! You see this is Maslow's Hierarchy, and other such explanations of education... One must progress to a greater sense of good, that usually involves the community around them!
Pentecost: This brings forth the necessity of an organized body of people, working together to support one another in their mutual efforts to not only improve themselves, but also bring about the betterment of society. No, I'm not talking communes and stuff, I'm talking about social responsibility and the opportunity we all have to work together to make life great! All social networks have leaders who have experience, and students who need to learn more by following the good examples of those leaders leading the way. Pentecost is certainly a Christian concept, and it is after all the Birthday of the Church! But we, the people of God, are that Church, and it is our responsibility and our opportunity to make things better for those living among us, and those yet to come. Was it Chesterton who wrote that "whether through a garden patch [or something else], [our goal is] to leave the world a bit better off", and to have that world know that we have lived!
So, in the end, we celebrate the everlasting life given to us by God (Resurrection), and the opportunity to grow and progress through life as we "know, love and serve" that God and one another (Ascension), and do so in the midst of other great people who care for and serve those around them as "One Body", unified with one purpose!
Now, to deal with the whole concept of agreeing on what that purpose should be... That's why this whole thing is certainly NOT a piece of cake... To quote the great Frosty the Snowman on this hot almost Summer day, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
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